[fr_freak]

You're talking about a show set in the South - there would be guns EVERYWHERE. As it was, I recall Rick having a big bag of guns that he grabbed from the police armory. So, you teach everybody in your group how to use firearms, safety principles, how to aim, how to deal with misfires, etc. etc. and then YOU ARM THEM. It would, in fact, be immoral to be in possession of a big bag of guns but refuse to give them to anybody. That would be a potential death sentence. If the reason you are reluctant to hand out the guns is because they don't know how to use them, YOU TEACH THEM. IMMEDIATELY. You don't say, "Ah well, they're unfamiliar with guns, so let's keep them defenseless." Gun training would be an immediate priority, not "when we get around to it."

And excusing Lori's behavior by saying that she is a suburban housewife who is not used to having to watch her child is an incredibly unrealistic way of looking at it. People only behave certain ways when the environment allows them to. A person may have grown up his whole life swimming in pools and lakes, but that doesn't mean that he'll jump right in to shark-infested waters just because he's used to being able to jump right in. He'd say hell no, I'm not swimming in there. Likewise, Lori being a lazy housewife when the world was safe was reasonable, but being a lazy housewife in a zombie apocalypse is beyond unrealistic. If she cared even a LITTLE for her kid, she would never let him go beyond 3 feet from her sight. It would be INSTINCTIVE. They would all be scared, for one, and people don't do cavalier stuff when they are afraid. That is why having a bunch of sheltered, spoiled, never-seen-real-danger Hollywood left-wingers writing for a show like this tends to suck: they have no idea what real people would do in a survival situation because they've NEVER SEEN IT.

For that matter, ALL of the characters would be terrified, all the time. NONE OF THEM would ever wander off alone, especially unarmed. They would cling to each other like ticks. Very few, if any of them, would even CONSIDER leaving the relative safety of the group, not even to take a tinkle in the treeline. THAT would be reality. And it wouldn't be a conscious decision - it would be purely instinctive behavior. The writers can't grasp that because, most likely, none of them have ever been in survival situations.

Back to the gun thing - if you saw the season 3 opener, you'll notice that the kid, Carl, is suddenly a full-fledged gun-wielding badass who can get clean headshots from 50 yards away, at moving targets, with a pistol (evidence that the writers know exactly jack about guns). Well, someone apparently took it upon himself to see that Carl knew how to shoot, and them armed him. Unfortunately, it took months and a lot of whining before that could happen. With less liberal writers, that would have happened by the end of week 2.

[cripplecreek]

You're talking about a show set in the South - there would be guns EVERYWHERE.

I think you might be surprised at how many guns are in the north. States like Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania probably have as many guns as the rest of the country combined.

Come to think of it, the north might be preferable in a zompoc. The cold weather has to slow them down at least.

[Ancesthntr]

“If she cared even a LITTLE for her kid, she would never let him go beyond 3 feet from her sight. It would be INSTINCTIVE. They would all be scared, for one, and people don’t do cavalier stuff when they are afraid. That is why having a bunch of sheltered, spoiled, never-seen-real-danger Hollywood left-wingers writing for a show like this tends to suck: they have no idea what real people would do in a survival situation because they’ve NEVER SEEN IT.”

My wife is from Mexico City (all legal, a citizen and a registered Republican), so she has street sense. She doesn’t let our kids go ANYWHERE without knowing what they’re doing, who they’re with, etc. She does NOT let them out of her sight when in public places. Hell, she only stopped closing the garage door while still in the car a year or so ago, after years of me abusing her about it. IOW, my wife is AWARE of her surroundings and AWARE that danger lurks out there - even pre-zombie. Oh, and she knows how to shoot...I’m afraid that I’ll lose my favorite gun when the zombies come. :>)

I love TWD, though I got pretty disgusted with the touchy-feely, kumbaya BS last season. First season, I could understand the lack of common sense by a bunch of suburban folk, because their world was turned upside down pretty much instantly. By season 2 they should have been far more sensible, and largely weren’t. Now it looks like they’ve wised up for the most part. I don’t understand, though, why they don’t use guns more - most of the people are gone, and you can presume that most homes and (especially) the prison would have plenty that wasn’t expended in the initial appearance of the zombies. Close range, you use your most deadly (no pun intended) weapons - longer range, you can use bows & arrows and such, so as to conserve ammo.

Anyway, looking forward to a much better season...especially if we don’t have a Zed as President. I, for one, am very tired of the undead that we have to deal with now - those wandering around in a daze, expecting everyone else to provide a pound of flesh for them just because they exist, and threatening to riot if they don’t get what they want. Oh, and the present undead are also, thankfully, largely unable/unwilling to use guns, just like the Zeds on TWD.

[discostu]

Even in the south you still have unarmed people. According the the FBI 1/3 of all American homes have guns, that still means 2/3 don’t.

Yes Rick had a bag full of guns. And then lost them. And then got them back. And then they got overrun. And then they went to the CDC. From the time Rick joined the group to the end of season 1 was under a week. When they finally did get some time in season 2 at the farm they indeed DID start teaching people how to shoot.

It’s not excusing to understand reality. She’d lived her life in a safe normal world where your kid can go out and play. And now she’s learning, not to mention dealing with all the psychological stress, almost everybody she’s ever known is dead, people are around her keep dieing, the dead are walking, people don’t just wake up one morning able to deal with a new scary reality. There’s a psychological process to deal with trauma, and people don’t function at their best during that.

Why wouldn’t people wander off alone. As you point out, they’re terrified. Any military trainer can tell you fear is the number one emotion for making bad decisions, that’s why so much of training is focused on making you work through fear. Heck Shane even talks about that while training Andrea how to shoot. Yes they SHOULDN’T wander off alone, but they will. People in bad situations do stupid things all the time, because they’re scared and people don’t think right then.

Nothing “suddenly” about it. One of the first things we’re told in the season 3 opener is that they’ve gone all through winter, we’re now 3 to 6 months after the end of season 2 and they’ve spent that time as a roaming band of foragers killing walkers. EVERYBODY has gotten better tactically. Because they’ve gotten the training and experience. It didn’t take months and a lot of whining to start that, they started that training in season 2, a few weeks after Rick joined the group. Your problem is you’re not understanding the timeline math. Season 1 from Rick getting to Atlanta to CDC getting blown up was about a week, season 2 from the freeway to the farm getting overrun was under a month, actually probably closer to 3 weeks. Total time from Rick getting to Atlanta to them starting the training was about 3 weeks, mostly on the run. The progression of what’s happened is very reasonable when you understand the math. They wanted to arm the group but understood most of the group needed training, when they had time for training they trained, now people are trained and they’re armed.